The Red Sox have built one of the most enviable farm systems in baseball.

It’s time to start breaking it up.

With the looming offseason projecting to be of the make-or-break variety, the front office must recalibrate its approach to prospects. The keep-everyone philosophy that has dominated Ben Cherington’s tenure as general manager enabled the Red Sox to develop a system with as many top-flight talents as virtually any team in the game.

The first wave of youngsters hasn’t panned out as expected, but that doesn’t invalidate the philosophy. We could be singing a completely different tune at this time next year, for instance, if Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts emerge as key contributors.

But one glance at the roster makes it clear the Red Sox have a ton of work to do this winter. The Sox could use anywhere from 3-5 impact starting pitchers, and forgive me if I’m not buying the “aggressive” pursuit of Jon Lester we’ve been ethereally promised.

The Red Sox have an understandable aversion to signing pitchers in their 30s to onerous long-term contracts, even ones they respect as much as Lester. The returns on Justin Verlander this year (currently sidelined with a sore shoulder), and to a lesser extent CC Sabathia, are just the latest cautionary tales.

So if they’re not going to sign an ace in free agency, they’re going to have to trade for him, and then perhaps fill in with a second-tier free agent like James Shields or Justin Masterson.

And to get an arm like Cole Hamels — or in a sky filled with pie, Chris Sale — that’s going to require a trade. The Red Sox possess plenty of young pieces to offer.

Speaking in the dugout before last night’s 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, Cherington wouldn’t commit to anything with the offseason still two months away, but he acknowledged the possibility of parting with prospects to get the players he wants.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been unwilling to trade prospects,” Cherington said. “It’s entirely contextual. For the right player, yeah, of course we’d consider trading prospects. We just have to see.”

The good news is, this isn’t the late 1990s, when the prospect pool ran dry and the top spots in Baseball America’s annual rankings belonged to players like Seung Song, Dernell Stenson and Michael Coleman.

The Red Sox are loaded in the upper minors with everything except power (outside of maybe first baseman Travis Shaw). Virtually the entire starting lineup at Triple-A Pawtucket has a chance to reach the big leagues, and deeper in the pipeline are eye-opening talents like teenagers Manny Margot and Rafael Devers.

Outside of Bogaerts, Cherington should consider no one untouchable, and that includes Blake Swihart and Henry Owens, the current jewels of the system. Cherington’s obviously not giving them away, but he shouldn’t hesitate to use them in a blockbuster for a talent like Sale or slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

The Red Sox have operated on the principle of keeping every young arm to guard against the high attrition rate that’s unavoidable when developing pitchers. But it’s time for them to take a long, hard look at guys like Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa, Matt Barnes, Brandon Workman, Anthony Ranaudo and Co. to figure out which combination can yield the most in return without annihilating the future.

Lord knows, with last place coming fast, there’s lots to be done.

“Clearly there are some areas we’d like to add to this offseason and we have to figure out what we feel makes the most sense, whether that’s trying to add through free agency or trades, weigh the cost and the expected return,” Cherington said. “There are definitely times when a trade makes more sense than free agency, and there’s times where it’s vice versa. I think we’ve just got to get in the offseason and see what those opportunities are.”